Mersane Warria arrested over deaths of eight children

Flowers and stuffed toys are laid opposite the scene where eight children died. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKSSource:AFP

THE bodies of eight children stabbed to death have been removed from the Manoora house where they were found on Friday.

Autopsies will be carried out today as the investigation into their murders continue.

The mother of seven of the eight children was arrested overnight.

The eight children - four girls aged 14, 12, 11 and two, and four boys aged nine, eight, six and five, were found dead yesterday morning by their 20-year-old brother who raised the alarm with police.

The suspect is 37-year-old Mersane Warria — the mother of seven of the eight children and the aunt of the eighth victim.

In a press conference held this morning at the crime scene Murray St, Manoora, Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said forensics officers had spent the night trying to piece together the scene.

“Overnight we’ve had our forensic people still in the house, the deceased have been removed from the residence, today we will have our coroner and pathologist conduct their investigations, with the assistance of the family,” Det Inp Asnicar said.

“The 37-year-old mother of several of the children involved in this incident has been arrested for murder overnight and is currently under police guard at the Cairns Base Hospital.

“The bodies have been removed from the residence, autopsies will occur today and it will be after that, we can comment on those sorts of things (causes of death).

Mersane Warria has been arrested over the children’s deaths.Source:Supplied

“The (forensic officers) are looking for DNA, they’re looking for mapping of the scene to establish what occurred, we’re looking time chronology, they’re looking for the order of the actions that occurred, they’re looking for any trace evidence in the residents itself, they’re looking for blood spatter patterns.

“All of these things our experts are trained to look for, to establish 100 per cent exactly what happened in that house when these offences were committed.”

Police have found a number of weapons in the home.

“We’ve located a number of weapons, once again our very good scientists will be looking at those weapons at some stage we will be able to determine if we have the weapon that was used.

“We are talking about edged weapons, knives.”

Det Insp Asnicar said the house would remain a crime scene “for at least another couple of days.”

“It’s not a thing I set a time limit on, our forensic people are experts in this field and they will keep it, just as long as they need to keep it.”

At this time police are not looking for any other suspects.

“At this stage, we’re not looking for anybody else, we are comfortable that the community at large is safe and have no need for concern.”

The street where the horrific murders occurred was not especially known to police as an area that gets a lot of calls.

“This area does get calls for service, this particular house, hasn’t been flagged for particular calls of service, it’s not a problem house, it’s just an ordinary neighbourhood, a lot of good people, a lot of kids in the area, this is just something that has caught everybody by surprise, it’s an absolute tragic event.”

A candlelight vigil is held for the victims overnight. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)Source:Getty Images

The 20-year-old brother who was seen at the scene yesterday has been spoken to by police.

“We’ve spoken to everybody, that 20-year-old man, there’s been some speculation there too, he is not of particular interest to us.”

The mother was in a stable condition in hospital recovering from stab wounds.

“At the current time she is awake and lucid and able to speak.”

The officers who faced the horrendous scene yesterday have undergone counselling and are doing well.

“My officers are coping very well, they’re all professional people, they’re very skilled in what they do and we unfortunately get exposed to this type of thing more than anybody would like to, but all the support mechanisms are there in place for us and my staff and they’ll be fine.”